Bob's Quantum Bits

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I wrote the following fable back in April, on another forum. It's not very nice, to certain aspects of society, but I wrote it when I was in a darker place than I am today.  I apologize in advance, if some are offended -- but, I will remind it's only a parable.

_________________________________________

How Religion Began.

A Fable.

Once long ago, there was a Very Lazy caveman. His name was Oog. He detested needing to go out and hunt for food every day, as it was both Hard Work and Dangerous.

However, Oog had a very good imagination. He was also a pretty persuasive speaker.

Thus, Oog discovered that he had a Talent for Explaining Why Things Happened. Oog was just imagining things out of his head, but the others in his tribe began to come to Oog to Explain Why. Why This? and Why That? and so on.

Oog quickly discovered that he could ask for a favor in return for these explanations ... and people began bringing Oog food, and he would Explain.

Oog liked this new arrangement. All he had to do was lie around all day long thinking up new Explanations for Stuff, and people would give him food!

Oog had invented the Worlds First Profession: Professional Liar. (Or Shaman/Priest/Clergy, if you prefer the vernacular.)

Thus Oog became fat and even more lazy.

This went on for many years.

Then, one day, the son of the Chief was killed, as a direct result of an Explanation of Oog's. The Chief grew quite peeved about it, and immediately had Oog killed.

But, it was Too Late: Oog's "God Virus" idea had taken hold in the tribe. Soon, Oog's son was Explaining Things ...

...

And So, the Present Day: We still have fat and lazy folk that will, for a price, Explain Things with a Convincing Voice.

And THAT is how the God Virus infected the Human Race.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Here is a panaromic photo taken from the top of Mount Scott, in the Wichita Mountains Animal Preserve.  It's looking east.  I put this in ART, because this is a composite photo, made up of several snaps taken at different angles, and "glued" together.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Here's my favorite picture of the Moon. (I took this with a hand-held camera, set on max sensitivity.  Digital Canon PRO90)  I put this in Art, because the picture has been edited.  Cropping, and some color balance.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Here's one I took of a box turtle, who was wandering around the exhibit, Wings of Wonder, at the Tulsa Zoo.  Again, edited photo. Cropped, color-balanced, de-rasterized, etc.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Here's another I took at Wings of Wonder, using a close-up lens on my Canon Pro90.  Edited photo.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

'k, I'm now coming to *you* for photo advice in the future..  Last time I tried to figure out my new cam there was much cursing involved.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

'k, I'm now coming to *you* for photo advice in the future..  Last time I tried to figure out my new cam there was much cursing involved.

I'll do my best 

I do have the advantage of having a best friend who is majorly into digital photography.  He's literally got $1,000's worth of equipment.

If _I_ can't answer, I'll push it up at him, and if he can't, he'll go to one of the many photo forums he frequents.

My buddy is one of those "just get the shot, you can compose & edit it on the PC".

Me, I tend to carefully compose the shot, and take a bracket (several shots with different exposures) of the shot.  Mine usually come out just as I intended, or (most of the time) are discards.  I don't edit much.  It's a matter of personal style, though. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I was watching a pretty cool movie the other day, called "What the Bleep do We Know?".  It spoke of a number of interesting things, and is well worth watching, if you like physics, metaphysics, philosophy and the like.  It reminded me of when I first was exposed to quantum theory, when I was younger.

Anyway, in the quantum-physics bits, it describe the modern, quantum-physics atomic structure.

That is, an atom is a very very small point (the nucleus) surrounded by a cloud of electron-probability.  That is, the electron cloud is only a probability-locus.  To put it another way, it is HIGHLY LIKELY that if you were to LOOK for an electron, you would find in somewhere in that cloud-space.  The electron seems to flicker in and out of reality at an amazingly fast rate, and when it flickers back in, it will appear within it's "cloud-space".

So to, with the nucleus:  it seems to flicker in and out of existence, but at a different rate than the flighty electron.  And, it seems better able to locate itself when it "returns".  It's locus-of-probability is a great deal smaller. (for example, if a nucleus of a gold atom were 1 foot in diameter, the outermost electron would be more than 3 miles away)

The study of this got me thinking about Life, The Universe and Everything, when I was younger.

I came up with the following.

How Creation Works.

A Parable.

Quantum physics says that electrons, protons and neutrons continually flicker in and out of existence.  Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is founded on the premise that one may not specifically say where in an atom an electro IS, but only where it will likely be.

Imagine a Divine Creator, who wanting to Create a Universe from Nothing, had to Imagine it All Into Being.

This Creator started literally with Nothing, no Time, no Space, no Atoms, no Energy.  Nothing.

All the Creator had to Work with, was the Creator's Own Substance, which was much like Energy, only in an Unlimited Supply.

How to make Stuff out of Energy?  It's fleeting, it's hard to capture.  It Won't Hold Still.

Thus, the Creator took tiny bits of Divine Energy, and Bound them into tiny packets of Force.  These were the nucleus of the very first atoms.  But the nuclei were unstable all by themselves.  So the Creator took even tinier bits of Divine Energy and blanketed the naked nuclei with clouds of electrons.  And the complete atom was stable.

When conceiving of these Things, the Creator realized that there had to be Rules that Govern these new energy-packets.  So that the new atoms would interact, and make new combinations and forms.

But, the Creator realized a tiny weakness:  the Creator needed to continually re-create these tiny energy packets all the time, to keep the Universe intact.

And the evidence for this continual re-creation can be seen in the quantum appearing and disappearing of the tiny bits of the very foundation-stones of the Universe.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Here is a digital photo of a painting that I painted  many years ago - in my early 20's I think.

The actual painting is large-format, aprox 30" by 20" or so.

The media I used is acrylic gel-paints. (comes in tubes like toothpaste) Similar to oils, but dries in only 20 minutes (unless you mist it with water every so often.)

Anyway, enjoy. 

[Sibling Chatty]

Very nice! The ability to paint something that doesn't look like it was done by a 7 year old amazes me. I like to watch people paint, sorta to see if I can figure out what it is that maken the picture in the head go onto the canvas, but...it's like listening to Japanese, or reading it. I can appreciate how it's done, but it's totally foreign to me.

The musculature under the fur shows up nicely even in the posted photo. That's the kind of perspective that just baffles me. How do people DO that??

Not that kind of artistic, me.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Very nice! The ability to paint something that doesn't look like it was done by a 7 year old amazes me. I like to watch people paint, sorta to see if I can figure out what it is that maken the picture in the head go onto the canvas, but...it's like listening to Japanese, or reading it. I can appreciate how it's done, but it's totally foreign to me.

The musculature under the fur shows up nicely even in the posted photo. That's the kind of perspective that just baffles me. How do people DO that??

Not that kind of artistic, me.

As for me:  detail by detail. I actually painted much of the tiger itself using a series of very tiny brushes -- 000 and 0000 (that's 3-oh and 4-oh, which is very tiny indeed.)

On the other hand, the sky-fade was done in a few strokes of a 3-inch wide brush, after laying down yellow in a stripe and blue in another stripe.  Then, using the wide-brush to generate the fade-effect, before the paint was dry.

I used mostly smaller brushes for most of the rest.

And, yes, I painted "back-to-front".  Sky-fade first.  Then the mountains.  Then the plains, working my way towards the foreground. I left a sort of "tiger-shaped" hole, more or less, where he was going to be, did most of the the grass in the foreground, then put mr tiger in.  Finished up with the details that were "in front" of the tiger last.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I wrote the following in response to someone else's positive bush-post (in another forum). Some liked it, so I re-post it for your reading pleasure (or pain, depending).


Bushie,
  ...most incompetent president is he

lying about the war he did
his ties to Big Oil he hid

asleep during Katrina he was
'Brownie, Good Job', because,

Bushie,
  ...most incompetent president is he

skipping out on his Service he did
his repeated DWIs he hid

for Jesus he claims to live,
his many faults to forgive,

Bushie,
  ...most incompetent president is he

history will tell us his sorry tale
to foreign investors the US he did sell

the biggest National Debt he made
to our great-great-great grandchildren the burden       
   he gave,

Bushie,
  ...most incompetent president is he

[The Meromorph]

Dixisti!